Romans: Vol. 2

Book Reviews

Dec 7

Romans: The Gospel-Centered Life Book Cover

Romans: The Gospel-Centered Life (Vol II: A Study of Romans 8-16)
By: Kristin Schmucker, The Daily Grace Co.

“In the light of the gospel of God’s grace, we are called to live a gospel-centered life. We are called to let the message of the gospel impact every part of who we are and how we live… Change is possible through the power of the Word of God and the Spirit of God to transform us from the inside out.”

After finishing Volume 1 (the first 7 chapters of Romans), I moved on to Volume 2.

[FYI- Much of this review is copied from the first book because the format, look, and use of this book is the same as the other.]

As stated in Volume 1’s review, I discovered The Daily Grace Co. and began this study of Romans alongside my pastor preaching through Romans on Sundays. This second half took me longer to get through and was harder for me to stay in line with the preaching but it was still a really good study through one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Also as stated elsewhere— this company is (I think) endorsed by The Gospel Coalition if you’re wondering what theology will be taught, and if I’m wrong, they at least both hold the same beliefs. The Daily Grace Co. statement of faith can be found here.

The format is the same as the first book- 8 weeks, each week with 5 days of study and a weekly review page.

It would work great as a weekly group Bible study or you can do it solo like I did. If it’s just you, you can set a slower pace but I felt the design was very doable for my busy life. Each day’s reading was focused on a few verses at a time and had 2 short pages of exposition, followed by 3-4 questions to answer.

The book is beautifully designed— the color scheme, photographs, layout— and has nice glossy thick magazine-type pages. I’ve included some pictures below to give you an idea.

But there is nothing fluffy about the content. I was worried that such a pretty book wouldn’t have much meat, but the exposition was right on track with my pastor’s preaching and focused on the big themes of Romans: our sin and depravity, grace and hope, justification, and a contrast of life before and after the Spirit.

The second half of the study looks at the themes of The Person of God, The Gospel of God, the People of God, and the Glory of God. It talks about God’s goodness and sovereignty, justification by grace alone through faith alone, the gospel being for all people of all nations, and the purpose of it all— to bring glory to God!

One of my favorite things about this study was the incorporation of Scripture memory. And it was fortuitous to select Romans because the passage we are working on memorizing is Romans 8 which is one of my favorite chapters in Scripture and one I had tried to memorize in college.

Each week there are 2-3 verses to memorize. There were many weeks where I got behind in memorization. But don’t let getting behind cause you to give up! It’s such a rich chapter to memorize. Go at whatever pace you need to.

Since I did this study alone, one thing I started to do was take an extra day at the end of the week to work just on the memorization aspect. Then throughout the week I would often say what I had memorized before I began the devotional for that day just to keep the verses fresh in mind. The trick will be to continuing to reinforce these verses in my mind now that I’m done with Romans.

I would write my answers to the questions in a separate notebook (because I didn’t want to ruin the beautiful book, ha!) and would also write down each week’s memory verse.

Scripture memory is so vital to our walk with the Lord— to have his Word buried in our hearts and minds, dwelling on it, and being able to recall his words of truth in times of need strengthens our faith and trust in the Lord. After all, Scripture is God’s very words and his Word is powerful.

I love that this study encourages and helps us to treasure God’s Word.

If you are looking for something short, theologically sound and to the point, yet pleasing to the eye and fun to open each day, this is for you!

Stay tuned to see what devotional I do next!

Pro Tip: I have learned since taking advantage of the aforementioned sale that The Daily Grace Co. actually has sales quite often. Their prices are pretty good. Most of the studies during sales are between $5-10 dollars and cover specific topics or just go through a certain book of the Bible. You can browse here. (FYI- I don’t receive any kickback for any purchases you make)